REscues - do any of you have arrangements with commercial catterys?

[Ela]

We place a few cats in a cattery. they have one quaranteen kennel which they allow us to have for free but we provide food and litter. They also let us use 2 or 3 other pens and charge us a reduced rate, however, it is only injected cats we place in there. Very few cat that are already injected come into care. Some of the cats on the list waiting to come in we have injected before we actually take them in officially so as soon as a place comes up we can put in one of those. If there is an emergency then a cat that has been with a foster and injected would be placed in the cattery and the un-injected little one would go to the fosterer.

[Angiew]

As far as innoculations go, some second hand cats come in with their certs and its only a bit of plannimg and 3 weeks to get a cat into a cattery and in those three weeks you have some quaranteen time anyway, so I don't see that as an issue. Some catteries will use a quarantine area if a cat has not had both vacs (or so I've heard!).
Cats would have to be selected as I don't think catteries are good for kittens, ferals or those that will home quickly. I'm thinking of the more mature cat that people ignore on the internet or maybe the odd pedigree we get (call me a snob , but I wouldn't like to home a pedegree in quite a few parts of Coventry((what an odd thought! )).

[Desley (booktigger)]

i thought they had to have the full course too. I have to say it isn't something that has ever occured to me and I dont know what the protocol for rehoming would be. Not even sure if we have a good cattery nearby.

[Mark]

£9 does seem a lot. Sharn recently put her price up from £6 to £7 which still  sounds cheap. The problem is, there are 2nd rate catteries around that undercut. As she pointed out before the price went up, 25p an hour isn't bad going for 24 hour care and responsibility of someone's cat - even then people find things to moan about 

[Dawn (DiddyDawn)]

I'm lucky as my friend owns a cattery and on occasion she will take in the odd cat or two for me.  The spare pens she has are well away from the other cats in there so it's not a problem.  She doesn't charge me but in saying that, I don't ask her that often, only when I'm really stuck.

[Angiew]

We've just about explored all avenues for fosterers in all ways and continue to do so.

Remember it must cost up to £1 a day to feed and litter a cat anyway so not all of that is wasted money. And if a fosterer with a pen decides to quit you're stuck with  the cost of dismantling it if you can't find someone to do it - not to menton the need to find somewhere to put it.

Still its just a thought. I must admit I'd quite like it as a memorial. (Remember I said that folks!). It's offering a cared for place for a cat (s) without the need for any extra effort on behalf of overstretched volunteers.

[Pinkbear (Julie)]

Rhodes Minnis rescue (Kent) fund all their rescue work on the back of a professional boarding cattery. I've always thought that's an ideal role model. 

But I think unless someone suddenly leaves you oodles of dosh, paying a year long rental of a pen isn't going to be cost effective because at the end of it, you lose the pen and have nothing left, even though it's a great way to find new homes. I'd be more tempted to try and find a new fosterer prepared to have a double pen in their garden and do it that way. Perhaps make the search for such a person the subject of a publicity drive on the radio or local TV?

Not sure what the norm is up your way, Angie, but £9 a day feels at the high end to me. 

[Millys Mum]

I thought it was cattery 'law' so to speak.

Its cool you homed all your cats in one day through her, thats pretty amazing 

[Canterbury_cats (Sharon)]

Well Sharn takes tested (we test just about everything)  FELV and FIV cats and given first vac before sending them to Sharns. However, i have to say we are specific on what cats go to Sharn for obvious reasons... We dont send the ones that have come in with health problems.. Touch wood in five or so years we havnt had any issues..and we wouldnt put her good nature and her business at risk....

As we make a rule of "every cat" that comes into us goes to the vets first and anything that is suspect and we dont know much about we don't suggest go to her..

We have a really good working and friendly relationship with Sharn and its worked very well.

[Millys Mum]

They are supposed to have completed the course tho arent tho? Iv not boarded before so could be wrong 

[Canterbury_cats (Sharon)]

Yes it is an issue with unvac cats, all our cats visit the vet first no matter what and are vac if possible.. However the benefit of Sharns cattery is that she gets alot of people visiting and we have homed a few just by that. Also last year, we hired her cattery and held our open day their and rehomed all our cats in one bright and very sunny afternoon...!!

We supply all of Sharns food (for CP cats and overspill some of her own lodgers) in lieu of cat litter that although we do give her litter is usually never enough.. Also we have to arrange a volunteer to do all the vet trips (this is usually Mark!!) as we think its wrong to burden her with all the vet visits all the time when she is trying to run her business..

We occassional use her for emergency use,,, and pay for an extra pen but its not that common,she does have an isolation pen for preg cats and kitten. Sharn is one of our longest serviing fosterers and she is fab!

[Angiew]

We have been left a (small) legacy this year and this week one of our numbers died suddenly. I'm thinking if we can get a yearly rate for a pen we could have a plaque made and dedicated to the both of them- not spoke to anyone in the group about it yet.

If anyone does do this would be really interested in what sort of rates they are getting.

Went to visit Calcutt Cattery which has just opened (yesterday). A fab location (except it wasn't signposted and took forever to find). They charge £9 per day and say they work on a 70% occupancy due to turnround - which immediatley reduces it to a fixed rate of £6 per day without any negotiation for a 1-year let. (thats me saying that btw, not them as we didn't discuss any figures and I'm sure they would argue that! )

They have a total of 2 pens occupied at the moment - http://www.calcutt-cattery.co.uk.

so about £2k for a year - I think thats a nice dedication and just think of the good homes it could provde!

[Millys Mum]

They mostly require vaccinated cats which most emergencies dont have proof of, if you can find one who can isolate then its got to be worth trying to barter with them Angie 

[Mark]

Another nice thing she does is on the rare occasions we don't have many in, she uses the CP pens for paying customers and donates the money 

She is also throwing a lunch this week for us all 

[Pinkbear (Julie)]

We are lucky in the fact that one of our most dedicated fosterers runs a commercial cattery. She has 2 CP pens alongside her paying pens. When we get too packed and we just have to squeeze in a sickly puss or 2, she gives us good rate for the overspills.  Of course, we can't afford it for long but it does help in an emergency. 

[Angiew]

Hi,

I've been musing about the lack of fosterers we have and the need  to get cats in. I am wondering if it is worth approaching local catteries to come to some formal arrangement over hiring some of their pens on a permanent basis (as opposed to squeezing the odd cat in now and then in a dire emergency).

Has anyone else looked into this and if so what was on the table and did it ever happen.

PMs welcome for any meaty details or just general chat on the forum!

Thanks, Angie